The African Elephant: An African Heritage
The African Elephant : Today we applaud directors Mark Deeble, Victoria Stone and narrator Chiwetel Ejiofor for the 8-10 years of hard work in producing an accolade winning documentary entitled The Elephant Queen. This documentary was produced in the greater Tsavo-Amboseli eco system which tells the story of an elephant matriarch determined to do everything in her power to protect her family when they are forced to move away from their waterhole. The story is woven into authentic natural history that celebrates Kenya’s wildlife and biodiversity, told in an engaging dramatic narrative that is aimed to inspire a new generation of Kenyans towards pursuing careers in wildlife conservation and the natural sciences and also groom young Kenyan conservation leaders. The Elephant Queen has won accolades such as the UN World Wildlife Day Biodiversity Award, the Cinema for Peace Award and the Best Cinematography at DOC NYC. This has also birthed the Elephant Queen outreach program whose objective is to use the film documentary to educate Kenyan youth on the wild spaces, elephants and the biodiversity systems they support and require to exist. This program is aimed to reach 100,000 Kenyan children by screening the documentary film in over 150 schools and 50 communities. We at Achieve Global Safaris applaud your great efforts in conservation of the African heritage.
We would also like to recognize a new discovery by Mr. Kenneth Kimosop Rutto, a waiter at Island camp on Ol Kokwe Island, the largest of Baringo islands, which has been identified by Louise Leakey as an extinct species of elephant. The young man, Kenneth Rutto, who found his first ancient relic in 2008 of an apparent gigantic Homo erectus footprint has yet again unearthed fossil bones that makeup the backbone, ribs and hind legs of an extinct species of elephant. He is now being recognized as the amateur fossil hunter. Congratulations to you Mr. Kenneth Kismosop Rutto and best of luck in your new adventures.
The African elephant is the world’s largest land mammal weighing about 6000kgs, much more than the Guinness world book of records heaviest weight ever lifted by man. Their calves can even weigh about 120kg at birth, are able to stand in the first twenty minutes and able to walk within the first hour of birth. This is of advantage as it is a good survival skill that enables herds of elephants to migrate at any required time. Their trunks comprise 150,000 muscle units that able it to carry out various tasks like suck out water to drink, pick up food to eat, blow, communicate with trumpet like sounds and even act as a snorkel when swimming. Their skin in thick with folds and wrinkles to retain much water to withstand any sweltering conditions, their tusk which are actually teeth grow out at the age of two and keep elongating which they use for defense and to dig up roots for food, their temporal lobe is large and dense thus the saying that an elephant never forgets and they communicate through vibrations that can be subtle to the human ear, sounds like a trumpet calls, body language, touch and scent. However, the African elephant is increasingly becoming an endangered species with about 90% of elephants being wiped out in the past century largely due to poaching and ivory trade and this has left an estimated 415,000 wild elephants alive today. Elephants have an estimated conception period of 22 months which means if they were only two elephants live today, it would take about two decades to form a herd. So, enjoy these formidable beauties today. Take a wildlife safari today!
As you enjoy a safari in Kenya you might come across the tribe of Kamba which has an interesting mythological story on the origin of elephants and why they are so intelligent. Simply put, elephants were believed to have once been human. This is a myth that is popular other African countries like Gabon, Chad, Namibia and South Africa. I find the tale of the Kamba tribe most captivating. In this tale a poor man has heard of a wealthy and generous man who was known as Ivonya-Ngia, which translates to “he who feeds the poor”. The poor man with a burning desire to discover the great secret to becoming rich travels a very long journey to see the wealthy man. On arrival, the poor man marvels at the grand mansion surrounded by verdant vegetation and pastures with abundant herds of sheep and cattle. On seeing the poor man, Ivonya-Ngia generously offers the poor man a hundred sheep and a hundred cows. However, the poor man rejects the offering demanding not charity but Ivonya-Ngia’s secret to everlasting success. In response Ivonya-Ngia gives the poor man some ointment and tells him to rub it on his wife’s canine teeth. The poor man returned homed and convinced his wife to participate for the sake of creating wealth for the family. Soon after the man had rubbed the ointment on to the wife’s canine teeth, her teeth grew long and tough into ivory tusks the length of a grown man’s arm. The poor man them pulled out the tusks and sold them which earned him a fortune. The poor man got excited and rubbed the ointment onto the wife’s teeth again. But when the tusks grew out, this time the wife refused to let her husband touch them and extract them. So as time went by, her entire body began to transform, growing rapidly, with her skin thickening and greying until she fully transformed into an elephant. She then later left her husband and wandered into the forest where she gave birth to the first line of elephants.
These tales most times were told as parables, with hidden meanings and sometimes with moral lessons. Today these tales are based enjoyed when told dramatically during a night campfire in the wild when on an African Uganda safari. Again, I tell you dear reader, book a safari tour with us today and enjoy this dramatic and thrilling experience.
